Well, I thought this thread was something different, but f it anyway. I've been thinking all day about my grandfather. Through my passion for the Nats, he watched every game in 2005 and 2006. Died in December of 06 at 82. A man who was born in 1923 in Vienna, lived and worked 8 decades here, never left. The last time we made the playoffs, he was 9 and with no tv and being so young, in the depression, obviously wasn't old enough to enjoy it. Who spent his golden years without a team, never once watching an Os game even on TV. Whose hatred of baseball made me never care about baseball for the way MLB screwed our city.

Except. Every October, growing up near him, I'd go over to his house and we'd watch the playoffs. Only then was his dismay with baseball overcome by a love for the game. When I attended the first game at RFK, he was watching on TV. My lone regret is he was too old and ill to make it to a game, but he got to watch 324 of them on TV. And he did. Every one. So when I'm rooting for the Nats in the playoffs, I'll keep thinking about how every October in the 80s and 90s, the only baseball I'd ever watch was with him, the playoffs. How he lived to see DC get a team back, but never even heard the name Strasburg or Harper. When I am cheering from my seat next week, all I will be thinking about are those October's in front of his tv. And that he at least got to watch 324 Nats games before he died.

Well, I thought this thread was something different, but f it anyway. I've been thinking all day about my grandfather. Through my passion for the Nats, he watched every game in 2005 and 2006. Died in December of 06 at 82. A man who was born in 1923 in Vienna, lived and worked 8 decades here, never left. The last time we made the playoffs, he was 9 and with no tv and being so young, in the depression, obviously wasn't old enough to enjoy it. Who spent his golden years without a team, never once watching an Os game even on TV. Whose hatred of baseball made me never care about baseball for the way MLB screwed our city.

Except. Every October, growing up near him, I'd go over to his house and we'd watch the playoffs. Only then was his dismay with baseball overcome by a love for the game. When I attended the first game at RFK, he was watching on TV. My lone regret is he was too old and ill to make it to a game, but he got to watch 324 of them on TV. And he did. Every one. So when I'm rooting for the Nats in the playoffs, I'll keep thinking about how every October in the 80s and 90s, the only baseball I'd ever watch was with him, the playoffs. How he lived to see DC get a team back, but never even heard the name Strasburg or Harper. When I am cheering from my seat next week, all I will be thinking about are those October's in front of his tv. And that he at least got to watch 324 Nats games before he died.

Well, I thought this thread was something different, but f it anyway. I've been thinking all day about my grandfather. Through my passion for the Nats, he watched every game in 2005 and 2006. Died in December of 06 at 82. A man who was born in 1923 in Vienna, lived and worked 8 decades here, never left. The last time we made the playoffs, he was 9 and with no tv and being so young, in the depression, obviously wasn't old enough to enjoy it. Who spent his golden years without a team, never once watching an Os game even on TV. Whose hatred of baseball made me never care about baseball for the way MLB screwed our city.

Except. Every October, growing up near him, I'd go over to his house and we'd watch the playoffs. Only then was his dismay with baseball overcome by a love for the game. When I attended the first game at RFK, he was watching on TV. My lone regret is he was too old and ill to make it to a game, but he got to watch 324 of them on TV. And he did. Every one. So when I'm rooting for the Nats in the playoffs, I'll keep thinking about how every October in the 80s and 90s, the only baseball I'd ever watch was with him, the playoffs. How he lived to see DC get a team back, but never even heard the name Strasburg or Harper. When I am cheering from my seat next week, all I will be thinking about are those October's in front of his tv. And that he at least got to watch 324 Nats games before he died.